The piece targets not just Clinton’s record on trade but her credibility. It says that she is “changing her tune” now that she’s campaigning in places like Ohio, but when Obama says he will fix broken trade deals “we can believe him.”

In pictures and words Obama extolled his nonexistent record on NAFTA and attacked Hillary’s character and credibility on NAFTA.

The general campaign is on, independent voters are up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric – at least when it comes to free trade.

In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine’s upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn’t want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.

“Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? “Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,” he answered.

As the interviewer notes Obama’s tone stands in marked contrast to his primary campaign’s anti-NAFTA fusillades. And
Now, however, Obama says he doesn’t believe in unilaterally reopening NAFTA.

Readers of Big Pink will recall the category of Obama lies on NAFTA which we wrote about at the time of the Ohio primary.

Obama jumped into the anti-trade waters with Clinton even though his top economics adviser, the University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee, has written that America’s wage gap is primarily the result of a globalized information economy – not free trade.

On Feb. 8, Goolsbee met with the Canadian consul general in Chicago and offered assurances that Obama’s rhetoric was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy,” according to a Canadian memo summarizing the meeting that was obtained by Fortune. “In fact,” the Canadian memo said, Goolsbee “mentioned that going forward the Obama camp was going to be careful to send the appropriate message without coming off as too protectionist.”

“more reflective of political maneuvering than policy” is a fancy way of saying ‘Obama is just fooling with his dimwitted supporters and trying to bamboozle voters into voting for him but don’t worry Obama is just lying to those fools’.

“In their final head-to-head meeting before Tuesday’s Ohio and Texas primaries, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) declared that they would opt out of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico unless those two countries renegotiated the pact’s labor and environmental provisions to the United States’ liking.”

Obama’s promise is no longer, as the Nixon White House liars would say, “operative”.

One day after Clinton angrily accused him of distorting her record on the North American Free Trade Agreement in mass mailings, the Illinois senator was eager to rekindle the long-distance debate, using passages from the former first lady’s book as well as her own words.

“Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton said it was good for America,” Obama said. “Well, I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America—and I never have.” [snip]

On Saturday, Clinton called attention to her plan to fix problems with NAFTA and a commitment against any future trade deals “unless they are positive for American workers.”

To an audience of Boilermakers Union members and their families, Obama promised the same thing, with particular attention paid to labor and environmental concerns.

Muslims can’t trust Obama now even though (we’ll write about this in this “Voting For Barack Obama” series later on) Obama has a long history with some shady Muslim characters he “used to” be very close friends with and benefitted from those friendships.

“I was coming to support him, and I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing this change, who I could really relate to,” said Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer who lives in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. “The message that I thought was delivered to us was that they do not want him associated with Muslims or Muslim supporters.”

Obama’s supporters and donors and admirers are learning not to trust Obama.

Senator Barack Obama opposes immunity and voted against the temporary expansion of FISA. We hope he will show strong leadership this time. He might even take time off from the campaign to vote against the disturbing deal brewing in the back rooms of Congress.

Instead of fighting FISA, Obama was once again AWOL from the fight. At some point Obama’s supporters will learn that Obama and his allies like Nancy Pelosi are not to be trusted.

That’s a simple fact for voters when they considered Voting For Barack Obama – Obama can’t be trusted.

I really think we are going to just watch him go to pieces before the convention. He has made a number of mistakes already, his treatment of Hillary, acting like he is already President, not reaching out to the HRC people, not only ignoring them, but adding salt to the wound, as they like to say.

I agree Obama cant be trusted, he has proven that every day
he say one thing and then say’s another.Any person who would
want to give mr osama a fair trail can not be trusted.
I would never vote for Mr Obama. unelectable just like Hillary
has been saying all along.

My question why cant anyboby see that? Why is the media covering
up for him? Why isnt he getting vetted? Who is behind Mr Barack Obama?
Why is he avoiding the Media now? What is Mr Obama hiding?

What a dirty trick to play on the American People shame on you
Barack Obama and DNC.We will remember in November!

His “Wizard of Oz” cover behind the curtain has been blown. He really is just the snake-oil salesman that Dorothy dreams about in the NIGHTMARE. BHO is just like the toronado in Kansas – a bunch of hot air.

ADMIN! that picture FREAKS ME OUT! I was about to take the dog out when I saw it and got all creeped!

Now about NAFTA…

If y’all remember, it was HERE ON BIG PINK that the NAFTA story about Barry’s back-room lies came to the forefront.

Meiyingsu had posted the CTV clip from YouTube late one night. I saw it in the morning and it NEEDED to get out. I had to work and Idunn,Diva, Dot, Sugar and others took the ball and RAN FOR A TOUCHDOWN!

When I got home that afternoon and read back over the thread, it read like a great script from a film classic! The team at Big Pink did in five hours what the Main Stram Media has not dome in FIVE MONTHS…REPORT THE TRUTH!

As the day went on, it broke on MSM forst on the RIGHT, then the Obama Media Lords were FORCED to pick it up, and by the end of the day Obama was standing in the aisle of the “we’ll take you for a ride” Air Express and trying to duck and cover from the fallout we created here. But he didn’t Bamboozle us, and he didn’t bamboozle Hillary.

djia, as much as I wanted to come to Denver I will not be able to. I have had to change jobs. I just can’t stand working for this narcissistic, misognistic boss any longer. The man should be fired, he makes it very hard on the women in the dept. while making is easy for the men. I am sick of it, especially since all this with Hillary is on my mind. I will be rooting for you all from a distance, and my heart will be with you all.

Confloyd…funny you say that. I was wondering if the same type of catastrophic event as happened on 9-11 will happen if he wins the GE to “rally the nation” around the contentious and illegitimate President as was the case with the illegitimate President before him.

Now, before everyone goes crackers, I do not subscribe to the “America did it” theory of 9-11. Not at all. I was there with Red Cross and I saw the insanity. But, i DO believe those in command were complicit and inept and capitalized on the tragedy to 1.) bolster the weak President and 2.) start this erosion of the middle class and our civil liberties. not to mention this war.

With all we have seen in the Axelrod playbook, and now throw in Dayley, it is not going to surprise me in the least if it were to happen.

Just too bad people will have to die to legitimize the great Bamboozler.

The Flip-Flopper, was sending out those dishonest NAFTA flyers during Super Tuesday. I remember, getting one, and throwing it in the garbage, thinking it was trash, which it was. What does he stand for? NADA. NO CORE PRINCIPLES. I hope, the people of Ohio and PA hear the new message. He is a liar, a fraud, and a cheat. His lips may move, but I don’t hear anything. The only change, he is bringing, is the nationalization of Chicago-style politics. His entire campaign is a hypocritical nightmare.

All this funding nonsense, how are politicians going to get their funding? From the DNC, controlled by Mr. Flip-Flopper? More consolidation of power, if the politicians down the line, are dependent only upon funds from the DNC.

I am not making “definite” plans right now for denver… we are moving and it will all really depend on where i am at on getting settled etc. so i am not making reservations, as i am a camping kind of gal and if no camp site is available that won’t stop me as i certainly am no stranger to my vehicle and rest stops

but i will let all of you here know if i am heading out west so we can hook up

I wonder sometimes if we are all being bamboozled. I think maybe Obama is a republican plant. He comes on strong against NAFTa only to find out now he is for it. Goes strong against the war and now suggests he might stay. I think about all the money he’s gotten, where did all of it come from? We all know John McCain isn’t loved by the Pugs, so this could be the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people ever. I sometimes think this combine is party blind, they just want a puppet in place and this puppet seems to be Obama. Only Obama is playing his own little game. You see what I mean??

Alright Al, you just gave us ladies and men that voted for Hillary the right to demonstrate on the streets of Denver. I also think he said there will be blood, not sure though. I think we can throw that line back at them! LOL!!

Per Red State
———————————
Q. What about Speaker Pelosi?
A. Hoyer got this bill through the Rules Committee. This committee is the personal property of the Speaker of the House: she can stack the membership however she likes, without input from anybody. In other words, no legislation gets through there against her will. The fact that it has means that she’s at worst sitting this one out.

Q. OK, what about Senator Barack Obama?
A. What about him?

Q. Won’t he go up against this?
A. Probably, but he’s the junior Senator from Illinois, he doesn’t actually have any power worth mentioning in the Senate (besides being the assumed Democratic nominee) – and, most importantly, this passing may be worth being able to squeeze a few more fundraising dollars out of the netroots later, so he’ll probably repeat a pretty speech, and maybe vote against the bill. If he makes it back in time.

Q. So it’ll pass?
A. As I said, there’s an excellent chance of that happening. You never know until it happens, though.

Q. So if it passes, who gets the shaft?
A. Nobody who matters.

Q. What about all those Democratic activists who are up in arms about this?
A. Since when do they matter?

I read somewhere nun was on the short list for VP. LOL!! I hope Bambi picks him, he is almost 70 years old, that would make all BS about McCain being too old null and void. LOL!! What an idiot Bambi is.

I have always admired you, and have been dismayed to see you less and less during the campaign season.

You have been a champion for underprivileged people across this country, a General in the battle against disenfranchisement and discrimination. Could it be that you have been asked to not get involved?

At any rate, being the fair man that you are, I wanted to ask if you will still stand behind your position of several months ago when you made the statement about the popular vote?

“Al Sharpton told Foxnews, if Obama goes into Convention with more popular votes but is not elected as the nominee, he and his black brothers will go to demonstrate on the street.”

We who support Senator Clinton, who has WON the popular vote, would appreciate you standing by your convictions and championing her win by taking “your black brothers” to the streets in Denver in SUPPORT of her historic win. Reverend Sharpton, is it to much to ask that you come out and support her when you are not being ALLOWED to come out public and support Senator Obama, who had less votes than Senator Clinton. Why are you being marginalized?

Detroit Paper: Obama needs to “stop treating Americans like pathetic victims” in the world economy

“If Barack Obama really wants to sell his message of hope to American voters this November, he needs to stop treating us like pathetic victims unable to compete economically with people in Mexico or China.

Rather, he needs to discuss people like Kyle Schwulst, 28, founder of ElectroJet Inc., a Whitmore Lake outfit of seven employees. Schwulst shopped his electronic fuel-injection device to China’s huge market for scooters and now expects to employ 20 people by year end and foresees $500 million in sales in two years.

McCain: “I Didn’t Love America Until”……
by EmperorHadrian
Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 08:38:54 PM PDT
Huffingtonpost.com now has a video from Verdict with Dan Abrams, from an interview John McCain gave with Fox “News” earlier this year. In it, he says,

Remember how the media claims they are fair and balanced? Remember how “journalists” say that all they do is “report the facts” and that their overwhelming lefitism is left at home when they ride their eco-friendly bikes to work? Remember how they claim that they are the “watchdogs” of politicians and don’t involve themselves in politics? Apparently the Chicago Tribune didn’t get that memo because an Obama supporter visited a local Chicago store to snap the picture to prove that Obama shirts are being offered in exchange for a subscription.

The broadcast network evening newscasts stories Thursday night all described Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of public financing as a “flip-flop,” a “reversal” and/or a “direct contradiction” of a pledge, but CBS’s Dean Reynolds also relayed Obama’s rationalization — that “he’s opting out of the system to have enough money to fight the unlimited spending and what he called the ’smears’ from unregulated Republican-allied organizations” — and then, with a 2004 anti-John Kerry ad clip on screen, forwarded his own example of a supposed past smear from the right: “Such as the Swift Boat group which attacked John Kerry in 2004.”

More socialism from Michelle Obama. Here she tells women in Ohio to turn their backs on corporate America to go into the helping community positions. Claims thats what she and Barack did and that the only reason she can make ends meet is because of Baracks books. Conveniently, she ignores that due ti her husband political success she has managed to secure for herself a more than generous corporate salary for her part time job at a hospital and received significant director fees from various corporate boards.

I won’t take much of your time, I first want to say how much I admire all you have stood for and to what lengths and conviction
you have gone too for equal rights. I admire that you are willing to do what is necessary including going to jail. Thank God for
People like you! I hate to think where our country would be with out activists like you!…..God bless you!

I was reminded today about a position you took earlier in the Primary campaign when you made the statement about the popular votehttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8583.html
“Al Sharpton told Foxnews, if Obama goes into Convention with more popular votes but is not elected as the nominee,
he and his black brothers will go to demonstrate on the street.”

Now I feel certain seeing as you feel so strongly that the Popular vote winner should be nominated at the convention, As do I.
That we can count on you to support Hillary Clinton at the Convention as the Popular vote winner to be our Democrat Party Nominee.

I am also certain that your life long fight for the cause and convictions against disenfranchisement and discrimination in this country that you will be
Behind the popular vote winner Hillary Clinton 100% Just as you would have been for Barack Obama…And rightly so.

I would just like to say how proud I/we will be, your people will be that you truly are a man that stands for something
That has integrity, a man that would never compromise himself and all that he has stood for all these years.

Not only did he flip on NAFTA but recently said that one of his first priorities would be to meet with the Mexican president to “repair the Mexico/US relationship”. Guess that means more imports of poverty, funny tomatoes, drugs, the “superhighway” from Mexico to Canada and the North American Alliance. Good thing we’re getting an extra 13 weeks of unemployment.

Jade: I have a hard time believing that bambi offered Hillary the vp job in the meeting at Feinsteins house and she declined. That would be wholly inconsistent with her public position that she would accept it if it was offered. As for the PSD I doubt it is a poke in the eye because gratuitous violence is not condoned, rather I see it as a dumb chess move because it has alientated Hillarys donors at the very moment when bambi is supposedly trying to attact them.

“An Obama supporter told me that voting for McCain would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
*****************************
It is more like cutting off the DNC’s nose to spite the Big Media Party’s face: we no longer have a nose or face–they have been beaten and shattered away from us.
Any “gifts” they would give us and this country we all would pay for dearly under their feet for many years.

I knew a lawyer once who had one of those story book careers. Investigated Death of Malcom X, top mob busting attorney in country US Attorney at 32, US District Judge at 35, US District Judge Berlin, Playboy did a movie on him called Tiger In Court (Martin Sheehan). He was also a great teacher for which I will always be grateful. By the time I met him he was back in private practice, and he told me in preferred it that way because he found life on the bench dull by contrast. For him it was and I thing of his comment when they mention Hillary as a potential candidate for the Supreme Court. It is pure nonsense. President is the job she is qualified for,

Overall, I’d say the news looks good. Every day, the Bambino campaign finds some new way to screw up or embarrass themselves. And June isn’t even over yet!
———————————————–
Jen- he is not ready for prime time. Some trite phrases he may wish to commit to memory: what I meant to say was/ that does not represent /my view (Q then why did you say it)/ that is not the Tony Rezko I knew

The answer to Laura Ingraham’s question what is the pensive looking obama thinking about is obvious: Rezko sitting in an 8×10 jail cell staring at a 300 year sentence with information to trade for a lighter sentence and special privliledges. I dont know but that would be my guess. I did not post there however.

Ill. state sen meets McCain. a clinton backer who is saying he may back mccain -and a natl delegate.
—-
After the event, McCain met privately with Martin Sandoval, an Illinois state senator and Democratic convention delegate for former candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sandoval said he left open the possibility of backing McCain, citing his immigration stance and pledge to keep business taxes low.

Admin
or anyone else with the know how if you could post a no obama from a to z, or 57 states i mean reasons to vote no to obama I would greatlty apprerciate it. I talk to people everyday here in PA that have no clue as to who he is only what they catch on the nightly news for five minutes in thier busy day. as we know big media is smitten and selliong their product of choice. if i could refer people to a site that listed his inadaquacies point by point I believe it would help. Awareness is the key. Several hardcore democrat women I have spoken with were all about the getting behind the “nominee” and simply letting them know that he played I got 99 problems but that bitch aint one of them was enough to make them rethink. I meant think.
People are unaware of the many things that you committed souls have uncovered. And I think a no obama A to Z or 57 reasons to say no site would be an effective way to reach people and would make an excellent door hanger. its very easy to find out what areas went heavily hill and we could march into them with a simple leaflet/doorhanger
ps– i have gotten several people to contribute 5 to a now defunct run by sharing the info you have all contributed here. most have never contributed a dime before. KEEP IT UP.

meiyingsu: the two obama’s was a good article. I didn’t like that last paragraph though. The only reason Obama is in the game at all is because of the media bias. As we all know if the media is not on your side, you’re toast.

So, I wonder what the Obama camp had to do to insure the media supported him no matter what?

I would be curious to know too how many of the media reporters really do support Obama. I wonder if they are like the Tina Fey character that says in public she supports Obama but in private will vote for John McCain.

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton’s fund-raising has run so dry she’ll likely have to eat the entire $11 million loan she gave her campaign, sources said.

Clinton’s push to retire her debt – more than $20 million including her loan – is going so poorly that getting help paying it down has become a major point of negotiation with Barack Obama, who wants Clinton to help smooth things with angry Clinton die-hards, sources said.

“I have raised nothing since the campaign ended,” one Clinton money person said.

That’s left the Clintons in a bind, choosing between stiffing themselves, major creditors like pollster Mark Penn or thousands of small vendors.

Sources said the fact they’ve all but written off their own loan suggests they’re favoring the local caterers and printers they used for campaign events.

“Even the Clintons wouldn’t pay themselves back before they pay the little guy in Iowa,” a Clinton fund-raiser said. After she quit, the money “dried up,” the source said.

Another said Clinton’s campaign failed to understand modern fund-raising, in spite of raising a stunning $220 million.

“It was a pre-Internet strategy,” said a top Democratic official. “You go to your big donors and get them to max out. Now it’s almost impossible to get money because it’s over. Why would somebody want to give to retire a debt for somebody who lost?”

Clinton’s best shot at retiring her debt now lies with Obama, who has built the best political cash machine ever seen. Sources said she wants Obama to tap his full grass-roots ATM, but negotiations were ongoing.

At stake for Team Obama is getting Clinton out working for him as soon as possible. “She will not go out until they have an agreement,” said a senior source, adding that a deal certainly would be reached.

I find many articles that are written about Obama tend to start off like a criticism but then at the end show support for him. Just like when articles were written about Clinton that sounded like they supported her and then boom at the end the last line criticised her and it negated the whole article.

I am thinking some of these articles are wolves in sheep’s clothing. It makes the author look unbiased, when in reality it is a pro-obama article. In fact the article I just said was good falls in this category now that I reread it and think about it.

Yes, Michelle really said she discouraged Barack Obama from entering politics because he is “sweet and pathetic.”
Lynn Sweet, in her column at the Chicago Sun-Times, reports that, after Sweet wrote up Michelle’s remarks, “Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor called to say Michelle Obama said ‘empathetic’, not pathetic.” How ridiculous! Watch the above video, and it’s 100% clear that she said her husband, the presumptive presidential nominee, is “pathetic.”

WHY, oh why, do Obama and his campaign constantly try to “unring” the bell?

As far as the pooh bear story….why is Obama so arrogant that he knew he camp could say something so childish and yet there would be no consequences. Now we know the media is supporting him so no surprise there. But he is not even worried about public opinion. Why is he so confident that public opinion does not matter.

Does he know something about the results of the election we don’t…..hmmm…Lake County anyone?

….or is he setting himself up for future elections if he loses this one.

Notice he is trying to desperately market himself to children….maybe that explains the pooh bear reference. Didn’t a super delegate support Obama because her children liked him.

I have seen video’s of Obama reaching out to children. Isn’t that what cults or terrorists do? Get the support while their young or influence them when they are most vulnerable. Don’t we as a society consider that a form of child abuse?

Now we know marketers do that with the products they are trying to sell. Companies are margeting younger and younger to get product loyalty. I see Obama is trying the same thing.

If Hillary is not offered the VP slot, and she won’t be, how can 18 million voices simply be taken for granted. Why has the DNC become the party of AA’s and affluent whites? What wil Hillary do? What will we do?

Obama Ignores Criticism, Continues With His Plan To Break His Promise On Public Financing

Media From Around The Country Has Criticized Obama’s Decision To Opt Out Of The Public Financing System:

“Barack Obama’s Shift Away From A Public Financing Program Has Drawn Fire From Republicans, But It’s Also Irked His Sometime Allies In The Good Government Community.” (Kenneth Vogel, “Obama Move Irks Reform Allies,” The Politico, 6/19/08)

The New York Times: “The excitement underpinning Senator Barack Obama’s campaign rests considerably on his evocative vows to depart from self-interested politics. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has come up short of that standard with his decision to reject public spending limitations and opt instead for unlimited private financing in the general election.” (Editorial, “Public Funding On The Ropes,” The New York Times, 6/20/08)

The Washington Post: “Pardon the sarcasm. But given Mr. Obama’s earlier pledge to ‘aggressively pursue’ an agreement with the Republican nominee to accept public financing, his effort to cloak his broken promise in the smug mantle of selfless dedication to the public good is a little hard to take.” (Editorial, “The Politics Of Spare Change,” The Washington Post, 6/20/08)

The Wall Street Journal: “Is this the tone of the new postpartisan Obama era? One may wonder. The fact remains that the decision is a large and telling Obama flip-flop.” (Editorial, “A Reformer’s Progress,” The Wall Street Journal, 6/20/08)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Barack Obama’s decision to turn down public financing for the general election is as disappointing as it is disingenuous.” (Editorial, “Breaking His Promise,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/20/08)

The Boston Globe: “But as usual, Obama seeks to have it both ways, supporting taxpayer financing in theory, while in practice demonstrating that it is unnecessary.” (Editorial, “Obama Opts Out Of Reform,” The Boston Globe, 6/20/08)

The [Manchester] Union Leader: “Of course, Obama’s decision is entirely opportunistic and cynical. He claims he still believes in public financing, but that the current system, which he has championed all these years, he now thinks is so flawed that he cannot participate in it.” (Editorial, “Obama’s Financing: Private Beats Public,” The [Manchester] Union Leader, 6/20/08)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “But the bottom line here: Obama billed himself as a new kind of politician. It turns out, on campaign finance reform, he meant new as in those pre-Watergate politicians.” (Editorial, “New Kind Of Politician?” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/19/08)

USA Today: “Sen. Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that he won’t participate in the public financing system for this fall’s general election was no big surprise. He has been telegraphing the move for months. But it is disappointing nevertheless, particularly for a candidate who claims to be running as a reformer and a different kind of politician.” (Editorial, “Obama’s Money Move Lifts Expediency Over Principle,” USA Today, 6/20/08)

St. Petersburg Times: “Obama’s decision to break his 2007 pledge to accept public campaign financing if his general election opponent did makes him just another presidential candidate exploiting his advantage as the front-runner.” (Editorial, “Obama’s Big Words Ring Hollow,” St. Petersburg Times, 6/20/08)

The Washington Times: “His ‘new politics’ is similar to the behavior of other politicians. Mr. Obama is breaking his word and is altering his principles according to what is expedient. Is this ‘change we can believe in’? This is not ‘change.’ Nor, in the future, can we ‘believe’ that Mr. Obama will stand by his pledges when it is not in his self-interest.” (Editorial, “Obama Reneges,” The Washington Times, 6/20/08)

By this time last cycle, Swift Boats and another key GOP 527 had already formed. A veteran Republican who works closely with outside conservative groups tells him: “[Democrats] think another Swift Boat is coming – and it’s not.”

From the story:

[L]ess than five months before Election Day, there are no serious anti-Obama 527s in existence nor are there any immediate plans to create such a group.

Conversations with more than a dozen Republican strategists find near unanimity in the belief that, at some point, there will be a real third-party effort aimed at Obama.

But not one knows who will run it, who will pay for it, what shape it will eventually take or when such a group may form.

More worrisome for Republicans who believe such an outside attack apparatus is essential to defeating Obama, some key individuals and groups who were being looked to for help say they won’t be involved.

T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who gave $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and who numerous GOP sources said was being looked to as a funding source this year, is sitting the race out.

“He is not giving anything to 527s involved in the presidential race this cycle, and has communicated that…to Republican strategists and operatives,” said Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser.
See Also

Rosser said Pickens “has a much broader public policy initiative in mind that will focus on energy, and is approaching that in a bipartisan manner.” He only “contributed last cycle because they were in play, and were so heavily funded on the other side.”

Also staying out of the third-party effort this time is the powerful Republican public affairs firm, the DCI Group.

DCI ran the independent Progress for America (PFA) campaign that raised $45 million to tout George W. Bush and tar John Kerry in 2004.

But after helping to underwrite ad campaigns for Bush’s second term effort to privatize Social Security and confirm two Supreme Court justices, PFA has become defunct.

Now, DCI officials emphatically want it to be known—and specifically asked that it be included in this story—that they won’t resurrect PFA or be involved at all in this campaign.

“DCI Group is not and will not be involved in any 527 activity this cycle,” said a spokesman for the group, which has a bevy of image-sensitive corporate clients. “DCI is out of the business.”

Further, Freedom’s Watch, the one third-party group that many conservatives expected to step into the void left by PFA, has decided to exclusively focus on congressional battles.

Asked if was still the intent of Freedom’s Watch to stay out of the presidential fray, Carl Forti, the group’s director, flatly said: “Yes.”

A spokesman for Sheldon Adelson, the chief financial patron of Freedom’s Watch, declined to comment when asked if the Las Vegas casino mogul would help finance other third-party groups targeting the presidential race.

Multiple Republican sources say that Karl Rove has been in contact with donors such as Adelson and Pickens about helping to create an independent effort but that to date nothing has come of it.

Of course, it really only takes one rich guy who doesn’t mind the negative attention, and the potential — which Republicans seem to take seriously — that McCain wouldn’t be grateful.

I see Hillary will be campaiging for O next week. I will not be watching the news. I don’t want to see hear anything about Hillary and Obama together. This would make me sick to my stomach. How many times does she have to be knocked down.

Most people stop donating once she suspended her campaign. They think if they gave donations it would go to O or the DNC. this is why no one is donating. Had she stayed in until the convention she would be getting donations.

[E]xactly what kind of change can Mr. Obama bring if he’s elected in November?

Foreign Policy: Take Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy pronouncements… Two doctrines are most prominent. One is to engage our enemies and be nicer to our allies. The other calls for leaving Iraq on a set timetable.

The problem with the first is that key allies like the conservative French, German and Italian governments … now embrace pretty much the same policies we do. Britain and the European Union just called for imposing tougher sanctions on Iran, while France and Britain promise more troops for Afghanistan.

In February 2007, Mr. Obama called for American troops out of Iraq by March 2008. But in the last four months since that proposed final departure, violence is way down: The U.S. military and Iraqi army have stabilized much of the country. …

The world in January 2009 will not be the same as it was in February 2007. So would a President Obama really engage Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just as the Europeans are isolating him, or give up on Iraq when the American military may well gradually draw down in victory, not defeat?

Energy: Gas prices are soaring. Americans are frustrated…

Yet Mr. Obama’s change probably wouldn’t include more drilling; more nuclear power plants; or fuel extraction from tar sands, shale or coal. …

Taxes: Mr. Obama also wishes to raise trillions in new taxes by upping the capital-gains margins, restoring inheritance taxes, raising the income rates on the upper brackets and lifting the income caps on Social Security payroll taxes. …

[M]r. Obama promises more vast entitlements in health care, education and housing, and current federal revenues were increased by past tax cuts that spurred economic growth.

Mr. Obama promises a new style of politics that is issue-based, rather than attack-dog. …

[But] the take-no-prisoners Moveon.org, which gave us the “General Betray Us” ads, is now an ally running third-party hit pieces on John McCain. …

Overall, Mr. Obama’s announced policies are sounding pretty much the same old, same old once promised by candidates like George McGovern, Mike Dukakis, Walter Mondale, Al Gore and John Kerry. …

If Deranged Doberman will not give not give bambi the worst person in the world award I certainly will. His refusa to participate in public financing and thereby limit the huge sums of money coming into his campaign from various sources, after he made a solemn promise to do so is far more than “disappointing”, or “not in keeping a new kind of politics” or the other euphemisms being kicked around. On the one hand, it is asking too much to expect a politican, particlarly an Orwellian one like him to give up that advantage, transient though it may be. On the other hand it all but guarantees that our government will be sellable to the highest bidder to a degree that was never possible before. Also we know from the Eccleon affair how easily he will sell out the public interest for money. If you needed any more proof that the press in this country has forfeited its role as watch dog and become lap dog for this campaign look no futher than this. This issue is so core to our democracy that their failure to put it front and center in the debate and examine its full implications is just treasonous. Once upon a time this was a priority for the NYT whereas now they are willing to merely mention it in passing and move on. And when he ends up breaking his own promise it is worse and the consequences to our country will be profound if the country is foolish enough to elect him.

By pushing a bill that distances himself from the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate on offshore drilling, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia is picking a curious time to exercise his well-known independence.

Webb wants his home state to have the right to explore for energy off Virginia’s coast. His staff insists his proposal pertains only to natural gas, and not oil, and that it is completely in line with the state’s other two leading Democrats — Gov. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Mark Warner, who is running for Senate.

Yet by attaching his name to the bill, sponsored by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Webb is taking a step away from Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the party’s presidential candidate, who opposes offshore drilling, and one closer to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the GOP standard-bearer who recently called for lifting the federal ban.

Webb’s divergence from his party also comes as his name is being mentioned on Obama’s short list for a running mate.
—————————————————–

Is this a way for Webb to say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to Obama’s potential V.P. offer?

Strickland, Mark Warner, Ed Rendell are taking their names out. Seriously, I doubt any self-respecting politician wants to be in that spot after learning a chief of staff has already been in place to ‘monitor’ the future V.P. Well, John Kerry or John Edwards is certainly on track to become Bambi’s V.P.
Sweet.

“The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. ”
– Henry Clay

——————————————————————————–
The politics of Flip-Flop. No change, just more of the same old politics, but Chicago mob style on a national level.

The difference between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama (used to be Barry Dawson) can be seen in her fight to secure universal health care vs his retreat in the case of Ecelon. She is willing to fight for the American People whereas he will not–at least not if they will give him a campaign contribution. He is the perfect pawn for children, people with the minds of children and big money elites.

Neeta–I cannot understand why Hillary is goin on the campaign trail now rather than waiting until after the convention assuming he is the nominee. Has he agreed to pay her campaign debts? Is it intended to be a signal of party unity going into the convention? Or is there some other explantation. There has to be something in it for her or it would not be happening.

June 20th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Webb has a bad toupee imo….he also seems mean.
————————————————
Actually, he is a real good guy. He really is on the side of the American people. I am comfortable with him. But I will lose all my respect if the signs on with bambi. I do not see that happening. But I have been wrong before.

—————
Second, the record makes clear that Obama is doing a 180 on his previous position. As Lynn Sweet notes in her Chicago Sun-Times blog, when the late Tim Russert told Obama in a Feb. 27 debate that “you may break your word” on public financing, Obama said that “at the point where I’m the nominee, at the point where it’s appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”

I don’t expect the Republicans to help the Democrats…they want to win the White House and they’re not going to play it Bambi’s way…why should they, when Bambi has been so GREAT for their campaign?

Everyday OBambi helps the Republicans…so I’m not going to focus on when the Republicans going to attack, it’s not my focus. My focus is to highlight Obambi’s mistakes in judgement and my dissatifaction with the Democratic Party’s MYSOGINY and SEXISM….also the wannabe Playmate we have in Congress and in the Media.

agreed…either debt or some cabinet position…..McCain is so weak he feels he does not need her. When are the 527’s going to start attacking him???
———————————————–
I do not believe the inducement would be a cabinet position for many reasons. There is no reason for Hillary to give up her senate job for that diminished role. Health and human services is a joke. It has to be something else.

“The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. ”
– Henry Clay

——————————————————————————–
The politics of Flip-Flop. No change, just more of the same old politics, but Chicago mob style on a national level.

========================

Alinsky method too. With Obama it’s being used from top and bottom both. The money people cultivate a safe token rabble-rouser. Both sides go after the centrist who really would help the people.

jbstonesfan Says:
If Hillary is not offered the VP slot, and she won’t be, how can 18 million voices simply be taken for granted. Why has the DNC become the party of AA’s and affluent whites? What wil Hillary do?

If Hillary is not tied up as VP, we will all be heard through her action as most powerful Senator, and as POTUS in 2012.

she’d better have it in writing. I don’t trust O as far as i can throw. I am very disappointed in Hillary. How can you support someone who’s supporters have called you every name in the book, plus his wife talking about her husband. Michelle saying she don’t know if she would vote for her or not. This whole election makes me sick. After this i will become an independent. No more party

We all need to relax. Obama’s lead over McCain is insignificant. That he did not get any bump after Clinton suspended her campaign is very telling. The Obama campaign might be arrogant enough to believe that they don’t need Hillary, but they will be WRONG. Obama’s past will catch up on him.

Only one of two things will happen:

1. Hillary would be the eventual democratic nominee, or
2. Obama would lose badly in the General Election

The Obamas’ fascination with the Kennedys is veering towards obsessive-compulsiveness celebrity-idolatry not seen since Michael Jackson tried to buy the remains of the Elephant Man. Seriously, it’s starting to creep me out. Yes, JFK was an outstanding leader and the Kennedy family has made immense contributions to American politics — everyone is in agreement on that — but the constant, overdone comparisons to all things Kennedy is beginning to cause a backlash. To put it mildly.

another comedy in Bambi’s V.P. selection
—————————————-
From MSNBC on June 10:

From NBC’s Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro
So you think you know who’s on Obama’s veep short list? Well, think again. According to sources on the Hill, Obama veep vetters — specifically Jim Johnson and Eric Holder — have been asking Dem members of Congress this week their input about potential running mates. The conversations are free-flowing but one name the vetters are inserting in the conversations is one that is not a household name… Ret. Gen. James Jones, the former Marine-turned-NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

And then there was yesterday:

You can officially take James Jones off the list of Barack Obama’s potential running mates.

The former commandant of the Marine Corps and commander of U.S. forces in Europe, whose name emerged from meetings Obama’s vice-presidential team had on Capitol Hill last week, appeared at an energy event here with his longtime friend, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Jones, a Missouri native, flew on McCain’s plane from Washington to the event, and a McCain aide said Jones was a backer of the Arizona senator.
——————————————
At this rate, John Kerry will be the last time standing!

Obama-Clinton Smiley Time Scheduled Even While Tensions Simmer Between Rival Camps
June 20, 2008 2:02 PM

The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, held a high-level finance meeting in Chi-town yesterday with top fundraisers, and there was nary a mention in the big meeting of any effort to retire Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt, which exceeds $22 million, including more than $11 million in personal loans she made to her campaign.

Word of the radio silence on that subject quickly made its way back to Clinton’s erstwhile campaign, since a handful of attendees at the meeting were former Clinton fundraisers trying to get on board.

And while the public face of the Obama-Clinton rapprochement is all smiles — they will campaign together next week and Clinton will attend an Obama fundraiser at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC — behind the scenes there remains much tension, sources involved from both camps tell ABC News.

It didn’t go unnoticed in Hillaryland, for instance, that the first fundraising solicitation Obama sent out was not for Clinton but instead one to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

To many Clinton supporters, Obama could easily send an email to his 1.4 million grassroots supporters asking them to help unify the part to retire Clinton’s debt. Obama fundraisers could bundle some cash together; former Clinton staffers could be brought on board. Some big Clinton fundraisers are waiting for Obama’s team to make a move to help Clinton retire her debt before they write a check for one cent to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Asked about progress in retiring Clinton’s debt, Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said, “it’s been a much talked about issue in the fact that nobody can just write a big check and hand it over.”

To Obama supporters, reaching out to Obama’s email list would cheapen the brand of his grassroots appeal, and would likely offend some contributors who view Clinton — and the campaign she waged against Obama — rather unfavorably. And it’s not as if Obama’s fundraisers and bundlers necessarily feel any differently.

And while Obama supporters don’t think the Clinton team expects them to help her repay the $11.5 million in loans she took out from her personal funds, other issues remain.

For instance, of the approximately $10 million in debt Clinton owes to vendors, Obama supporters are not inclined to have former Clinton senior adviser Mark Penn repaid one dollar on the dollar for his well-compensated efforts.

Many hurt feelings remain on both sides. Clinton supporters feel she was the victim of a biased media and an unfair primary system, that their candidate would be a better president and remains more electable. Obama campaign supporters see Clintonistas as deluded, poor losers, and suffering from a narcissistic myopia that precludes them from seeing that Obama was offended by many of the Clintons’ tactics.

And, they ask, why hasn’t Clinton done what former Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, has done, and called her delegates and asked them to throw their support to Obama?

In short, though you will see smiles for the cameras next week, do not think smiles equal happiness

Jackie Kennedy was cultured, refined, educated, and well mannered. She was impeccable in her wardrobe. We all copied her.

Michele: Notice how her pearls never seem to lay quite right; the skirt on her suit, ill fitting and not complimentary to her big hips. The brow is usually furrowed, angry…hard to come across as gracious with that. It’s obvious she’s been studying Jackie’s style (horse riding next?) but as the old cliche goes, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

I can’t quite imagine Jacqueline Kennedy speaking even privately about her husband’s personal habits (no stinky feet or all snorey in the morning, etc.)

Comparing the delegates of Edwards to Clinton’s, is laughable. How do 26 delegates compare to 1700+? Everytime, anything comes out of the Flip-Flop campaign, accusing the Clinton campaign of unfavorable tactics, being poor losers, and narcissitic myopia, I just reflect it back to the accusers. What a bunch of nasty people. Don’t they think, the Clinton supporters are very offended by the tactics of the Flip-Flop campaign? It is a two-way street, jerks.

Washington Post rips Obama for his latest race-baiting gaffe (shunning Muslims from the stage of his rally with Gore). Once again, Bambi blamed it on “low level staffers,” which was the same line he used when the “Clinton (D-Punjab)” fiasco erupted. Talk about gutter politics and failing to take personal responsibility for your team’s offensive behavior…

Wednesday in Detroit, volunteers for Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign refused to permit two young Muslim women wearing a head covering to sit directly behind Senator Obama. As an American Muslim woman, I am distressed at this incident.

The hijab is a head covering that some Muslim women choose to wear as an expression of modesty and piety. It is regrettable – no, shameful – that any American would be asked to retreat to the shadows on account of her religious identity. Our country was founded as a safe haven for those fleeing religious persecution, and as a result, we deeply cherish our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion, including its full expression.

This incident must be considered particularly out-of-character, and disturbing, for a campaign focused on inclusivity and positive social change. Senator Obama has positioned himself as a change agent who embraces Americans of all races, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, and religions. Herein lies the power of his message, and it is extremely unfortunate – and uncharacteristic of his campaign – that certain members of his staff are aggressively and single-mindedly fashioning Obama’s image, to the detriment of his inclusive message.

I hope that Senator Obama can continue to tear down the walls of unwarranted prejudices and suspicion among Americans, regardless of faith, ethnicity or gender, and without fear of others’ ignorance, prejudice and fear-mongering. As the immense political pressures facing Senator Obama only increase – including absurd “accusations” of being Muslim or apostatizing from Islam – it is critical that he, or any candidate, continues to treat all Americans of all religions with equal dignity and respect. I thank him for directly addressing this unfortunate incident and personally apologizing to the young women.

One day, we may see American Presidents, male and female, wearing turbans, yarmulkes, and hijabs. Our nation’s foundation rests on a legacy of diversity and respect for difference, and Senator Obama’s person, candidacy, and message reflect this very legacy. Perhaps some of his staffers and volunteers need to step back and reflect on exactly why they work for this historic campaign.

I wish we could send this money to relieve her campaign debt directly to Hillary. Maybe we could send it to her Senate office or for that matter her home. I don’t know, but I don’t want the DNC or Obama to get a dime of it!

Birdgal, if we send it to her campaign office, I thought that that money was going to Bambi as well? What’s the address of her campaign office. I think I will start sending like money orders to her office. Maybe that way we can be sure it only goes to Hillary. I afraid of the credit card or paypal method, I think he could get that!

Neetabug, I feel just like you, I will not give any money to the FRAUD or the DNC. I would like to help Hillary though. She has been the only candidate that I have contributed to and I must have given close to 600. That’s alot for me, since I am one of those poor white people that seems to be invisible to everyone except Hillary Clinton. SHe is the only one I have seen, that actually has plans for us. The rest could care less about us!

—————————————
The Great Seal of Obamaland?
At a discussion with a dozen Democratic governors in Chicago on Friday morning, each of the governors was identified with a small name plate but Senator Barack Obama sat behind a low rostrum to which was attached an official-looking seal no one had seen before.
It is emblazoned with a fierce-looking eagle clutching an olive branch in one claw and arrows in the other and is deliberately reminiscent of the official seal of the president of the United States. Around the top border are the words “Obama for America;” across the bottom is the campaign’s Web address. It also contains the logo of the Obama campaign, variously interpreted as a sunrise or a view down an open road.
Just above the eagle’s head are the words “Vero Possumus,” roughly translated “Yes we can.” Not exactly E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One), the motto on the presidential seal and the dollar bill. Then again, Mr. Obama is not the president.

Kostner, that is hilarious. “Vero Possumus,” wow. The whole thing reads like a bad parody. It’s a transparent attempt to make Bambi appear “presidential,” because his handlers know he doesn’t have anywhere near the needed experience to actually be commander-in-chief, lol.

It reminds me of that PR stunt from about 5 years ago, when the Bush White House began calling Crawford, TX the “Western White House” for a little while, to try and fend off criticism that Bush was taking vacation days all the time, before everyone laughed the idea down…

After two weeks laying low after suspending her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton will return to the Senate next week for a series of Capitol Hill and campaign events.

The details have not been released about her schedule, but a Senate Democratic aide confirmed to Politico that Clinton will have a significant event in the Senate next week, followed by a meeting Thursday with Barack Obama’s campaign finance team. Clinton will top off her re-emergence with a major campaign event Friday with Obama, at a location that still remains secret.

There had been some reports that Clinton might take a full month off after ending her presidential campaign and not return to Capitol Hill until after the Fourth of July recess, but she will be on the Hill next week getting back to work and holding public and private events aimed at maintaining a high profile. Clinton took a four-day vacation last week — the destination has not been revealed — before showing up at Tim Russert’s funeral this week.

Check back with The Crypt for details about Clinton’s public schedule as they leak out.

OMAHA, Neb. – Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said Friday he would consider serving as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s running mate if asked, but he doesn’t expect to be on any ticket.

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Hagel’s vocal criticism of the Bush administration since the 2003 invasion of Iraq has touched off speculation that if Obama were to pick a Republican running mate, it might be Hagel. Hagel said in an interview with The Associated Press that after devoting much of his life to his country — in the Senate and the U.S. Army — he would have to consider any offer.

“If it would occur, I would have to think about it,” Hagel said. “I think anybody, anybody would have to consider it. Doesn’t mean you’d do it, doesn’t mean you’d accept it, could be too many gaps there, but you’d have to consider it, I mean, it’s the only thing you could do. Why wouldn’t you?”

In a book published this year, Hagel said that despite holding one of the Senate’s strongest records of support for President Bush, his standing as a Republican has been called into question because of his opposition to what he deems “a reckless foreign policy … that is divorced from a strategic context.”

Hagel wrote in “America: Our Next Chapter” that the invasion of Iraq was “the triumph of the so-called neoconservative ideology, as well as Bush administration arrogance and incompetence.”

He said Friday that he and Obama also have differences.

“But what this country is going to have to do is come together next year, and the next president is going to have to bring this country together to govern with some consensus,” Hagel said.

He hasn’t endorsed Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumed Republican nominee, whom he calls a friend. Hagel said Friday he hadn’t thought about who to vote for in November.

In a March appearance on ABC’s “This Week, he said he and McCain have “some pretty fundamental disagreements on the future of foreign policy,” including the Iraq war.

McCain has said his goal is to reduce U.S. casualties, shift security missions to Iraqis and, ultimately, have a noncombat U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to that in South Korea. He has said that such a presence could last 100 years or more.

Ted Sorensen, a former speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, said Thursday that Obama should consider Hagel.

Sorensen, a Nebraska native, said Obama should pick a running mate who can help where he’s weakest, and Hagel’s national security experience makes him a logical candidate. Obama has a team managing the vetting process that includes former first daughter Caroline Kennedy, and Sorensen said he has spoken to her about the selection.

Hagel served as an Army sergeant in Vietnam and was twice wounded in 1968, earning two Purple Hearts.

He was the only member of his party on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support a nonbinding measure critical of Bush’s decision to dispatch an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq.

“There is no strategy. This is a pingpong game with American lives,” Hagel said at the time.

The rhetoric drew the public ire of Vice President Dick Cheney, who told Newsweek in January 2007 that Ronald Reagan’s mantra to not speak ill of another Republican was sometimes hard to follow “where Chuck Hagel is involved.”

Dear Clinton Dem, Yesterday I joined in on a conference call Hillary had with her National Finance team. She thanked her supporters emphatically for all we have done, and let us know that she wants to keep her network of friends together to fight for issues of great importance over the next few months. It was so great to hear her voice — like all of you, I miss her.
She made a personal appeal for assistance in retiring the outstanding debt owed to vendors by the campaign. It is often the case that the eventual nominee pays off at least a part of the debt incurred by a competitor’s campaign. It is clear that Hillary does not want to be in a position to have to accept that kind of “help”. There certainly will be strings attached. If you can spare it, please donate whatever you can right now. Some of you have concerns about donating to Hillary’s website due to the Obama contact page on the front of the site. We confirmed with campaign headquarters that the money is going to retire her debt, NOT TO OBAMA OR THE DNC. In fact, it is ILLEGAL for the money to go to anyone other than the Hillary Clinton For President primary campaign.

However, if you prefer, you can mail a check to Hillary’s primary campaign office: Hillary Clinton for President
4420 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203

Helping Hillary retire this debt will send a signal to the DNC that her support is still strong. She will have leverage to fight for the things you and I believe in. If you feel she has made a positive contribution to your life, please make a contribution to her.

It looks like Shields (of Shields and Brooks on the NewsHour) has finally come down off the Kool-Aid (at least for now!). Both of them thought Obama;s flip-flop on campaign financing TOTALLY undermines his message of ‘change’, and turns him into an SOB politician. HA!

An Excerpt from the Press Pool Report at Obama Fundraiser
Jacksonville, Florida
June 20, 2008
At a fund-raiser in Jacksonville, Fl., presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he expects Republicans to inject race into the campaign. Pool report from John Broder, New York Times:

Obama “The choice is clear. Most of all we can choose between hope and fear. It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

Hi, everyone! Just got back from vacation and am trying to catch up. Read about Solis-Doyle on No Quarter. I’m with Larry Johnson on this and am beginning to wonder if she did work as a Waffles mole, given her close ties to Axelrod. And I’m not naturally into conspiracies …

Also, I’m surprised there isn’t more movement on the 527 front against Waffles.

basil: he is young and inexperienced and he has a funny name. And he is black. This is all true. He scares me, because of his arrogance, inexperience, lack of political courage, and lack of core values. Did I mention, his misogynistic and sexist behavior towards women? Actually, McCain gives me more hope, at the current time. He is not Bush.

basil9, Waffles knows he can get away with that because his race-baiting worked so well against Hillary. The MSM falls for it every time. Although, if I were McCain’s camp I’d respond to this immediately by saying such accusations are absurd and insulting.

Paula,
i don’t think the race-baiting will have any traction with McCain. The repubs don’t care. And there’s enough unverbalized ‘code’ in their vocabulary for Johnny-mac to get his point across without resorting to the ever-expanding list of banned Obammerrhoid references. In fact, as i now live in a heavily repub area and have become more familiar with the ‘natives’ perspectives, charges of race-baiting by Obammerrhoid will be viewed as early deer-hunting season. They’re gonna have a ball with that issue (in a politically correct way, of course). And at this point, BM has so trivialized and marginalized itself that no ones paying much attention. (IMHO)

Birdgal,
IMHO, Obemmerrhoid is on a par with Caligula. He’s a ticking time bomb. His response to accusations by the Muslim women removed from the recent rally because of fears their habibs would send a wrong message was sickening. He apologizes to them but not a word to the millions of ‘typical bitter white women,” garlic-noses, West Virginians, floridians, Michiginians, kentuckians, bible-carrying gun-toting regular Americans who make up 75% of the population. Oh, that’s right. He doesn’t NEED us but he evidently DOES need the Muslim segment of the voting population, or is it the radical Muslim world in general?

Paula,
Google ‘Who Put This Huge Knife in Hillary Clinton’s Back? by Karen Hill’
It’s in the Unheard Amercian Voices blog.
The gist of the article is that HRC was sabotaged from within her campaign and gives video examples of subliminal messaging.

Everyone is aware of the value of media and advertising. Everyone has heard the term, “product placement” and rumors have existed for years that companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for just the right product placement in a movie.

Politicians are no different, advertising means the world to them, it means the difference between the voters hearing their message and absorbing it or the voters ignoring their message. To a politician media and advertising are priceless. Which brings us to our first unpleasant dilemma.

Someone, I do not know who, campaigned against Hillary Clintonfrom the inside and used all of America to do it. The worst part is that it seems to have worked. I doubt this is the only example that is out there but it is a starkly glaring example.

I have spent hours upon hours going over videos in the last 2 weeks and I have talked to experts all over the country. This is the first part of a two part piece I have been working on, the second part is far far more frightening than this. *I must say thank you to PA for her invaluable assistance with a hint that sent me in the right direction for the 2nd part of this piece.

I will state plainly and simply Hillary Clinton was blatantly sabotaged from inside her campaign I can discern no other logical conclusion.

it seems strange that he was so quick to apologize to the 2 Muslim women, doing it the next DAY, after dragging his feet on a number of other gaffes. Remember the “bitter people clinging to their guns and bibles’ comment? How long did it take him to acknowledge THAT??!!!!!
Why so quick to publicly apologize to 2 hajib-clad women after insulting millions of us?

confloyd, I’m tired of people blaming Hillary’s campaign. BM, the race card, sexism were the culprits.

Every campaign has inner turmoil and some ups and downs. In HRC case, it was the outside forces that wanted BO so badly they maligned her, stole her delegates, and shun the popular votes that ended her run.

Remember back in Nov when everyone said Hillary was running such a flawless campaign?… then BM and the race card kicked in. In Nov., AA were still behind the Clintons. By January, it was all about race and sexism. It took race baiters like Robinson, Roland Martin, BO, Clyburn and the rest to turn a well-loved Dem President into a racist.

confloyd: the dnc and the leadership of the democratic party were against her, which I think contributed to most of the problems. the primary was rigged, delegates stolen, no support from the party, etc. Granted, her campaign should have planned more for the caucus states, and I’m sure PSD’s mismanagement of funds had a negative effect, going into Super Tuesday. This was a brokered primary.

After Sheila Jackson Lee suggested that Barack Obama needed to reach out to female voters still on edge after the narrow victory over Hillary Clinton, Obama suggested that he was too busy to do women’s work:

Sources at the meeting said that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a Clinton supporter, expressed the desire that Obama and his campaign would reach out the millions of women still aggrieved about what happened in the campaign and still disappointed that Clinton lost.

Obama agreed that a lot of work needs to be done to heal the Democratic Party, and that he hoped the Clinton supporters in the room would help as much as possible.

According to Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Obama then said, “However, I need to make a decision in the next few months as to how I manage that since I’m running against John McCain, which takes a lot of time. If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it.”

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., a longtime Clinton supporter, did not like those last three words — “Get over it.” She found them dismissive, off-putting.

By Paul Kane
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) today announced his support for a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by the liberal activists who have fueled the financial engines of his presidential campaign.

In his most substantive break with the Democratic Party’s base since becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama declared he will support the bill when it comes to a Senate vote, likely next week, despite misgivings about legal provisions for telecommunications corporations that cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program of suspected terrorists.

In so doing, Obama sought to walk the fine political line between GOP accusations that he is weak on foreign policy — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called passing the legislation a “vital national security matter” — and alienating his base.

“Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program,” Obama said in a statement hours after the House approved the legislation 293-129.

This marks something of a reversal of Obama’s position from an earlier version of the bill, which was approved by the Senate Feb. 12, when Obama was locked in a fight for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Obama missed the February vote on that FISA bill as he campaigned in the “Potomac Primaries,” but issued a statement that day declaring “I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty.”

Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) continue to oppose the new legislation, as does Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). All Obama backers in the primary, those senior lawmakers contend that the new version of the FISA law — crafted after four months of intense negotiations between White House aides and congressional leaders — provides insufficient court review of the pending 40 lawsuits against the telecommunications companies alleging privacy invasion for their participation in a warrantless wiretapping program after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“The immunity outcome is predetermined,” Feingold wrote in a memo today.

Obama came down on the side of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who argued that a provision in the new law reaffirmed that FISA, and that act’s courts, gives the final say over government spying. President Bush has argued that a war-time chief executive has powers that trump FISA.

“It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance — making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law,” Obama said today.

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the most prominent Republican opponent of the compromise bill, issued a statement today calling that exclusivity provision “meaningless because that specific provision is now in [the] 1978 act.” Specter said Bush just ignored existing law in starting the warrantless surveillance program.

Thanks djia. Looks like he’s pandering to the right/middle. Everything we predicted is coming true. I remember TM wrote about how Hillary has convictions and you know what you’re getting… with Obama, it’s just a role of the dice.

I just read TM’s blog about BO and FISA. Ya know, it is quite obvious TM still loves HRC very much. Many of the things I read on her site about what to expect from BO has come to fruition.

It’s comments like these that I know there’s still the old TM we know and loved that still lurks somewhere:

As long as Republicans get to lead top Democrats, including our nominee, around by the nose on national security we will forever be taking a back seat to these Spy Now No Consequences Later Republicans. Pathetic in every sense of the word.

Now we wait for Senator Obama to “work” to remove the immunity so Democrats can “seek” accountability. And when he falls short of the votes what then? I suspect he’ll suck it up like all the rest of these pantywaist “war on terror” toadies. Again, not that I expected anything different from him. But I bet his supporters are having a rude awakening of what they got from this guy right now. It’s been quite a week for Senator Obama: walking away from public financing (good move, which I predicted from the start); now a cave in of all cave ins complete with a weasel word fog of monumental proportions.

According to Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Obama then said, “However, I need to make a decision in the next few months as to how I manage that since I’m running against John McCain, which takes a lot of time. If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it.”

I honestly had considered not tackling this issue relating to Larry Sinclair and Obama.
I have been following this story since early February. I was unsure if this was just a rumor or smear as the Obama lovers claim or if this was a news worthy event. I began reading the blogs, newspapers in Chicago, and watched the You Tube videos. The more I read of the tactics the Obama campaign and bloggers were using to smear all persons not supporting him and calling nonbelievers as Racists I concluded that We Bloggers and Anti Obama websites have a duty to report the news. The MSM has decided Larry Sinclair is not credible based on an article post at Politico as stated by Fox News Reporter Greta on gretawire.com. We have seen this pattern repeatedly during the Primary race between H. Clinton and Obama. If it concerned Clinton it was taken to task but Obama was and still is being given a free pass. In conclusion this behavior makes me question maybe Obama did have a Sinclair encounter and the Obama camp wants to cover it up and call it smear propaganda. I am giving you links to investigate for yourself the Sinclair Obama connection.http://www.larrysinclair.org
citizenwells.wordpress.com/
larrysinclair0926.wordpress.com/http://www.larrysinclair.org/press.html

After viewing consider this blog:
lamecherry.blogspot.com/2008/06/larry-sinclair-brilliance.html

Lame Cherry
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008
Larry Sinclair Brilliance
In observing Larry Sinclair the nemesis of Barack Obama concerning drug and penis use in the back of a limo, one can listen to a laid back Sinclair tell his tale like one discusses the latest fashion trends.
For the Obamaniacs, Sinclair sounds like a dufe and a liar which they dismiss in their infatuation over Barack Obama. For those who really listen to Larry Sinclair though, he has allot more going on with him in intelligence and planning than his Minnesota smile reveals.

I sincerely believe that when Larry Sinclair was arrested after his National Press Club appearance that he honestly had calculated this would occur. He knew that the Obamaniacs were going crazy. He knew that Obama had shut him down in spending a fortune. He knew that Obama’s people were ticked at being reigned in the last time Mr. Sinclair waded through the muck of Democratic politics and he knew he had outstanding warrants which would lead to his arrest.

Now ask yourself, if you are Larry Sinclair and there is no legal way you can get your hands on Barack Obama’s phone records which Obama is hiding in connection with murdered Don Young and the vanishing limo driver who brought Sinclair and Obama together, what is one of the easiest ways to gain access to that information than a court order?

What court order could this be? Well, Larry Sinclair knows that 3 Obama operatives are online bragging they got Mr. Sinclair arrested. They phoned the DC police and literally stalked Mr. Sinclair and provided a visual identification that Mr. Sinclair just “happened” to put on his blog before the press club meeting.
Next, instead of the DC police, the Feds swooped in and took custody of Mr. Sinclair……all an apparent violation of the 10th Amendment of the Constitution as Delaware or Colorado were not even bothering with seeking extradition for Mr. Sinclair where his warrants were outstanding.

So this means someone in the Federal government violated protocols as they have no business in getting involved in a state matter for petty matters. The best part of this is for Mr. Sinclair is they then moved him from the District of Columbia, into Maryland which has nothing to do with this case which is supposed to be a Delaware warrant.
Liberals when this is going on with terrorists call it kidnapping. The reader can decide as a judge will if Mr. Sinclair’s attorneys start filing subpoenas in this for the following counts of what is shaping up as a criminal conspiracy of the Obama operatives and Federal officials to stalk and imprison with kidnapping one Lawrence Sinclair.

Questions now are raised in who in the Federal government was monitoring this to send in officers to take into custody Mr. Sinclair who has not broken federal laws.
Delaware and Colorado both knew of Mr. Sinclair and could have cared less about his petty offenses.

Attorneys now can subpoena phone and email records of the federal government.

Attorneys now can subpoena records of the 3 Obamanaics who were stalking Larry Sinclair to see what contact they have with the Obama camp.

When any of the above shows a link as in WhiteHouse at the same press conference Mr. Sinclair was conducting to what Mr. Sinclair states is a Mr. Axelrod working for Barack Obama funded the WhiteHouse lie detector fraud, well that channels directly to Mr. Obama and all of his campaign records in a criminal conspiracy to silence Lawrence Sinclair.

Once that door is open and it is, then Larry Sinclair via the court can obtain Barack Obama’s entire phone records which Mr. Sinclair states will prove his meeting with Barack Obama in a limo and the dealings Mr. Obama had with a dead sodomite choir director in Don Young.

Whether the Obamaniacs know it or not, they are the plumbers in an Obamagate who just landed this entire fiasco back onto Barack Obama with the courts opening up everything he has just like in Watergate.

Payoffs, faked lie detector tests, murdered choir directors and now a literal Federal conspiracy involving what is termed French bloggers and an American blogger to stalk and imprison Mr. Sinclair.
If the Federal zealot who grabbed Mr. Sinclair is found without merit as this was not a federal matter, then there is a fact of kidnapping.

All of that adds up to a horrendous catastrophe and as stated if Mr. Sinclair knew his being dragged into the courts would gain him access as his past maneuvers have shown, then it will be Barack Obama’s own people who bring him down as they have just opened all avenues of defense to Mr. Sinclair and his attorneys to all of these records as one apprehension links all of the parts together.

Now who looks like the bright boy? Yes Larry Sinclair does look quite intelligent now and if his attorneys are one bit the savvy they appear to be, the Obamaniacs walked right into this in one of the best chess moves ever carried out.

Barack Obama in his public directions has stated he had hundreds of operatives doing such work and they have been attacking Mr. Sinclair. The chickens have come home to roost and there is no way Senator Obama is going to cover this up when the courts get involved as if he starts violating court orders that is contempt and if he starts legal maneuvers the voting public will really start focusing on this in what he is really hiding.

Perhaps Larry Sinclair should have been the Democratic nominee as he is so far ahead of the most brilliant operatives in getting them to walk right into this.

filbertsf, sorry, I wasn’t saying that I believed it. I was saying to look at the article I posted. It was about subliminal messages in her advertisements that apparently went unnoticed by her campaign chair, for instance PaddySolis-Doyle. I have been hearing rumors that maybe Paddy was working for Axelgrease all along. I don’t know, but the article was interesting, it has the videos and you can really see what they are talking about.
Besides Folks, Hillary’s campaign did not fold, she won, she really did, she should be at this point in time going after McCain for herself and not Obama! Geez!

Other Videos with Barack »
By Larry Johnson on June 20, 2008 at 3:11 PM
I have it from two solid, reliable sources–two individuals who are well known and respected in Washington circles–that Michelle Obama won’t be the only member of the Obama family featured in 527 ads come the fall. Looks like Barack has his share of “star” moments awaiting. Seems that Barack did not appreciate during trips to Africa and Israel that there is a thing know among intelligence professionals as “hostile” intelligence services. Apparently Barack did not understand that Vegas rules did not apply (you know, what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas).
Then there is the clue from Barack’s Palestinian buddy, Ali Abunimah. During a 1999 community fundraiser held in Chicago for a Palestinian refugee camp, Mr. Obama made a speech. Word is that it is the kind of speech not likely to earn Barack an invite to next year’s AIPAC Convention. You don’t suppose Republicans have snared a copy of that speech do you? Nah, they would not do that. They love Barky.

mj, well, at least TM is consistent on this point. She did think that BO was full of shit when he talked about public financing in the GE way back in January. She thought that it would put the Dems at a disadvantage. I recall TM said Edwards made a mistake for promising he’ll use public financing in the GE.

Yes, filbert, but it would not have. The Dem’s have more wall street backers than the repubs at this point. Who would have thunk it? There would have been plenty to retailiate against any 527′s. But the truly ugly part of this is he is going around actually claiming this is the FIRST publically funded campaing. Not since Nixon has someone opted out of the public funds. Cliaming this as a good thing is just horrible. The people who fund elections for the most part will consist of about the top 10% of the economic ladder. Not good.

i want to know if there is a 527 of dems and conerned americans against obama. i feel so foolish having to sit here and wait for what the gop may or may not do and when. millions of dems and others see this dude as a frightening choice. is there such an effort? i know puma wants to run an ad.but

Obama is an ass! Not that we all did not already know that. Saying that the GOP will use the race card just to get it started before the summer. Maybe McCain’s daughter Bridget should do an ad calling Obama out for being the real racist in this campaign.

did u see this -obama raised 22 mil. mccain raised 31 mil. and they are tied in gallup. the money machine is running low-pelosi’s atm may be shorting out.

Obama Raised Only $22 Million in May
Obama’s in serious trouble: he raised just $22 million in May, his weakest fundraising month ever.

Obama’s camp has been hinting it was sitting on $100 million fundraising months. How is that possible when he brings in just $22 million in May, and he outspends his opponents 5:1 and still loses key states?
hillbuzz.com

All right, Barack, you’ve got your tiara and you’re prancing down winners’ row like Miss America. We get it, you’re happy. Sadly for you, the rest of us are damned pissed off and you’re the target of our rage.

You see, our girl, Miss Universe, came in “second” to you. Yeah, I know Miss Universe is superior to Miss America, but I consider that analogous to the popular vote and the delegate totals, respectively. She won with the people of the country she would like to represent, but you scored big with the judges. Here in pageant country, Texas, we call that an upset. In simple words: we’re just not that into you.

Here’s one way you might change our minds a little. Leave Miss Universe alone. I mean it. Get your blondies, your Heathers, and your frakkin’ Grease Lightenin’ fan club out of her face. That’s not making me giddy over you and it isn’t inspiring my inner sunshine, mkay? The more you antagonize Hillary, even in absentia, the more I begin to actively detest you and let me tell, you don’t want another Scorpio hating on you. You will not recover from it. Trust me.

The “pundits and the party leaders” have determined that you will be John McCain’s opponent in November, or at least until you go ‘splody in a great big ball of Howard Dean-scented flames. So be it. I believe that was an ill-made (see ethically- and monetarily-handicapped) decision. I have also decided that because of the way you’ve behaved, you juvenile, cheek-scratching, dirt-off-your-shoulder swatting, arugula-sucking, Spanish-ham nipping, policy-stealing, under-the-bus-throwing hack, that I can’t vote for you. I know, I know, you don’t care about me. I’m dirt on your shoulder and all that rubbish. Fine, fine, stop your kvetching.

You’re lucky right now. Many, many people who have decided not to vote for you have also decided not to vote for John McCain. That’s good for you. Here’s a chance that just might win you the election in November if you listen. Tell them how wonderful Hillary is, and how smart. Talk about the fact that you stole all of her old ideas because even the old ones were brilliant, just not as brilliant as the new ones. Tell them how you’ll call her every night to ask her advice because she’s infinitely more knowledgeable than you. Tell them how you really wish the SDs had picked her because even you would’ve slept better at night knowing that she was the one with her finger on the big red button since button literacy was one of the few things they didn’t give remedial classes on at Harvard. (And, we know you were in the remedial classes. Be honest.)

Once you’ve done all that, do the truly good thing and tell her to go back on vacation—whenever she comes back. You know that you—and your robber barons—are the reason the entire party establishment decided to stab a tried and true elder in the back. You know that, I know that, Hillary and Bill know that, but I think we’d all feel much better if it was said aloud, near a microphone and assembled press. Really, I think it’s time. Then, after that’s done, I want you to say, “I intend to win this on my own. I’m not gonna stand on the backs of black people and rich folks’ hired help to win this one. I’m gonna stand on my own two feet. Not on Hillary’s feet, or President Clinton’s. I will campaign in all 50 states in my campaign for the Presidency…But not today.”

Why not today, you may ask. I’ll tell you why, darling. It isn’t your time. You have a very long time to run for President. (Try 2016 on for size.) This isn’t a matter of entitlement on the part of the Clinton faction; it’s called practicality on the part of people in need. Wake up and smell the doom. The “paranoid holdouts” smell it something awful.

The country is in a tailspin of economic and cultural conflict. We are struggling to consume scarce resources, because the resources are, in fact, scarce and because money is even more so. Average people—who work for a living, who balance their checkbooks every other day in case a dollar’s gotten out of check, who mend clothes instead of replace them, who can afford to have air-conditioning in their homes but know damn well they can’t afford to turn it on during the worse days of summer—don’t have time for your brand of Hope-y Charms. Average people, when they aren’t toiling under the weight of an upside down mortgage for which there seems to be no remedy, are trying to decide if they can afford to live in a country where abortion is no longer an option—when for many of the poorest, it may be the only one. They are trying to decide how badly they want alienate their child who has just admitted for the first time the boy she’s been too embarrassed to bring home is really her childhood best friend, who’s lived next door all along. Can they see her in love and say they never want her to know the joy of a real wedding? They don’t know, but they’re trying so hard to decide.

Now, of all times, we can ill-afford someone who is only tepidly devoted to the vital needs of people in this country. That means you, Barack. You don’t care about these people. Don’t deny that. You are indeed caught up in the concept of yourself as President. You want to be the figurehead but you have no desire to do the work. You don’t care if you are another Jimmy Carter; you’re the first Black President, no matter what. They can’t take that away from you, can they? No, they can’t.

But we can.

And we have every intention in the world of ensuring that you never see the inside of the Oval Office.

You have insulted every one of us, if not with your actions, with your silence when our duly-chosen representative, our leader, was savaged in your name. You looked down like a boy-king as your regent was drawn-and-quartered when you had finally decided to ascend to your throne. You have no sympathy—certainly no empathy—and you couldn’t spare even a moment to sincerely defend her. There isn’t a second of this travesty that isn’t engrained in my memory, and that my future children won’t hear of as I think back on the greatness of one woman, and of the mightiest of glass ceilings that stands, more undead than intact, above our heads. There won’t be another like her, Barack, this woman who you’ve stopped with a brick wall when a historic bullet wouldn’t do.

And if there is, some woman who is so enormously prepared, she won’t run. Who would subject themselves to these months of endless torment just to serve a bunch of poor, starving, uninsured, commoners? I can name a woman, but I find myself hard-pressed to name another. Can you? It certainly isn’t Michelle.

It’s you, not us, who have stopped history from being made this year. Hillary would’ve been President without question. Not a byte of data refutes it. You, however, have an alternate destiny. You see, because it is our moral responsibility to keep you away from the White House. The country would never recover from four years of your brand of Democratic corruption in Washington. Eight years of fraudulent, criminal right-wing hucksters have nearly done the nation in, but you, you would be the death of it. So, while you sit there and contemplate the number of new registered voters you’ve got and all that mythical—somewhere someplace—money, remember that there is no amount of “kissing” or flashing your Ba-Rocks at us that will make us vote for you. It’s not the size of your Ba-Rocks or the capacity of your bank account; it’s the depth of your compassion and the breadth of your character.

That, sweetheart, is where you come up so short that you shouldn’t be allowed to be a Salvation Army volunteer, much less be elected President. Partly for those reasons, you won’t be.

The point of this long trip to why I’ll never vote for you is this: If you want me to keep being good and not be a McCain Democrat, you and your thugs—yeah, I said it, thugs—will begin to leave Hillary alone, starting now. Every time you bring her up and insult her, I send out an email. Every time you laugh about angry, “typical white wom[e]n,” a voter that I know personally will lose their will to vote. Every time you offend another state or another demographic that you “won’t need to win in November,” I’ll write another post like this.

Be nice to Hillary, be nice to Bill, and most importantly, shut the hell up. Accept your defeat as imminent, but bask in the notion that you have made “more history” than Hillary. Feel free to ignore that pain in your leg, that’s just me and the voodoo doll.

You say you’ve won this nomination and that you don’t need me—or my 18 million closest friends. All right then. Win without us. However, that means, you have to win without Hillary, too. She, no doubt, voted for herself. Therefore, she’s one more of those over-forty white broads you can do without.

For the first time in my adult life, I’m not proud to be black in America. And frankly, I’m hoping to leave.

The Elian Gonzalez controversy is resurfacing on the 2008 campaign trail, as a great-uncle of the Cuban boy speaks out against two Barack Obama advisers who played a role in the dispute eight years ago.

The Miami Herald reported that Delfin Gonzalez planned to hold a news conference Friday in Miami to coincide with Obama’s arrival in the state, where the presumptive Democratic nominee is holding a fundraising event Friday night.

Delfin Gonzalez told the Herald he would denounce Eric Holder, a member of Obama’s running mate search team who was deputy attorney general at the start of the Gonzalez controversy, and Greg Craig, an Obama foreign policy adviser who represented Elian Gonzalez’s father during the custody dispute with his relatives in Miami.

“We’re going to express opposition to Barack Obama’s visit to Miami, and explain how we’re opposed to him having individuals on his campaign who were associated with Elian’s seizure in 2000,” Delfin Gonzalez told the newspaper. “Some wounds are so deep that they do not heal over time, such as taking a child and sealing his fate to a communist dictatorship.”

Elian Gonzalez, now 14, was 6 when his Miami relatives lost a custody dispute that drew international attention. He was returned to Cuba in 2000 with his father after washing ashore on U.S. coastline following a boating accident off the Florida coast as his family fled Cuba.

Well, just when you thought Mr. “You’re Likable Enough, Hillary” couldn’t possibly get any more arrogant, he goes and does something like this.

The old, status quo, non-Barackcentric Presidential seal…
has been replaced with a new, fresh and exciting one, fully equipped with new politics, more NAFTA lies, and healthy dose of campaign finance flip-flops. Today, the presumptive selectee, who Sen. Robert Byrd endorsed as a “humble Christian” last month, unveiled his new and improved logo at a meeting with Democratic governors:

The last thing super delegates or anyone in the Democratic party needs to do now at a crucial time is listen to Nancy Pelosi. About anything. A job approval rating lower than George w. Bush qualifies you to stop talking and nothing else
———————————————
Tom in Paine @ heidi lees site

David Brody recently sat down with Sen. Barack Obama in a one-on-one interview. Brody asked Obama what should be done about the negative tone in today’s pop culture.

Watch above, read below:

Obama: The degrading images towards women I think are a problem and when the Imus issue came up, one of the quotes that stirred up a little bit of controversy for me was, sadly, as offensive as what Imus said, was we hear some of that language on the radio in our own communities.

I do think as President you can use the bully pulpit to speak out against some the coarsening aspects of our culture. I am not someone who believes in censorship, but I think there’s nothing wrong with speaking out against things that are teaching our kids the wrong lessons.

I want to make sure that when I’m driving along, I don’t have to sudeenly fool around with the radio because of an objectionable lyric, or that if I’m watching television that suddenly there’s an image on there that’s completely inappropriate. That’s something that I think all parents struggle with. And it’s not a conservative or liberal issue, I think it’s just a matter of common sense.

Seriously, when was the last time you listened to the songs on your kid’s iPod? And if you did, were you truly able to understand what the songs were about?

We thought Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was bad, but trust me some of the stuff that is out there today makes that song sound like a nursery rhyme.

I know I’m getting old, but wow! Some of the lyrics in today’s music may sound harmless, but trust me they are not. If you only knew…

The fact is they’re out there and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon.

You guys are right about Pelosi and Reid. I understand that they have a slim majority, but to just keel over and give Bush everything he wants is just negligent. What’s the point of having an opposition party to represent Democratic principles if we’re just going to roll over?

I’ll change party affiliation after Nov. Right now, I just want to be an angry Democrat voting for McCain (ugh).

birdgal, that’s what bothers me the most. I mean, even if they’re going lose, at least go down with a fight. Let the country know they did their best to fend off Bush’s Orwellian state. Right now, the majority of country can’t tell the Dems and Pugs apart. It’s all just one dysfunctional family.

Sadly, the Democrats are complicit in the erosion of our civil liberties.

confloyd, I’ve already made up my mind. I will not vote even if she’s on the ticket. The reason is I want to keep 2012 open for her. So even though it may look like I’m betraying her, I’m doing this because my one goal now is 2012.

If in 2012 she decides she doesn’t want to go through all of that again, that’s her choice. But I want that option available.

It’s because of 2012 that I am holding my nose and voting for McCain. There’s nothing McCain can say or do that will convince me not to vote for him… b/c my voting for McCain has nothing to do with him.

Somethng happened this week. It will cost the Dems the election in November. Guaranteed. Since this is a public site I will be oblique.
I am sending a letter to Hillary so she knows.

If Hillary is the nominee the Dems will win. Also guaranteed. She (and McCain) figured this one out a month ago. Bambi however blew it because he tried to think like an economist rather than as a politician. The Audacity of Inexperience.

just wish you could share it with us! your post is like a great big christmas present just sitting there under the tree begging you to carefully remove the tape to take a peek inside without mom and dad finding out

CHAPTER 33 – EMBLEMS, INSIGNIA, AND NAMES
713. Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United
States, the seals of the President and Vice
President, the seal of the United States Senate, the
seal of the United States House of Representatives,
and the seal of the United States Congress.
-STATUTE-
Whoever manufactures, sells, or possesses any badge,
identification card, or other insignia, of the design prescribed by
the head of any department or agency of the United States for use
by any officer or employee thereof, or any colorable imitation
thereof, or photographs, prints, or in any other manner makes or
executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the
likeness of any such badge, identification card, or other insignia,
or any colorable imitation thereof, except as authorized under
regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title
or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

One clue: bambi will be ensnared in this prior staements and the demands of the latte liberal set portion of his base. It will be funny to watch this one, because it uh uh uh . . . McCain will look not an old man but a wise old man.

Just for the record… I think all these former Clinton supporters who now support BO are just plain silly. If the past year or so that they worked their asses off to get the first female elected to the highest office, then why would they want to close the door on her chances at the Oval Office?

HRC, being 60, can’t wait until 2016. Her age will be the biggest roadblock. It’s 2012 or never.

2012? pretty obvious how those dice need to roll.
I really think they will now, despite what Hillary and everyone else tries to do in good faith to ensure a democrtratic victory. But if perchance she is the nominee in 2008 then we will win.

dija- you have no idea what it is like to endure 30 years of attorney jokes- like what do you do you call a bussload of attorneys that goes over a cliff wiht 3 empty seats? Well . . . ? A good start.

Actually the practice of law has changed completely since I took the bar. It was a profession in those days and things were far more collegial. Today it is a lot more cutthroat, the emphasis is on billable hours and the burnout facto is high. In a big firm today your chances of making partmer are probably one in eight. There are alot of disappointed people. But the education itself is a highly practical one and I woiuld highly recommend it to any young person who is interested whether or not they ever decide to practice.

Enough of this serious shit. It is a bore. Wonder how Michelle makeover is coming. Man did I get an earful on that from an ardent feminist and great friend. She did the unthhinkalbe and for one brief shining momnent I felt a feeling of sympathy for MO but it quickly passed.

I think it is so pathetic the candidate of change continuously changes his position on the issues. This is not the kind of hope I want. I am tired of the empty speeches; empty because they have no substance. If Obama offers a policy issue on the campaign trail, chances are it was already tried. Nothing is new from the candidate except for his success with two words. Two meaningless words.

I am sure everyone would to know Obama has a history on the campaign trail of never taking responsibility for the actions of his campaign; instead, he passes the buck off on his campaign: http://www.obama-wire.com/Apologies.htm

Born into slavery as one of the youngest of thirteen children of James and Elizabeth in Ulster County, New York, in 1797, Sojourner Truth’s given name was Isabella Baumfree. As almost all of her brothers and sisters had been sold to other slave owners, some of her earliest memories were of her parents’ stories of the cruel loss of their other children. [snip]

In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth – her name for a traveling preacher, one who speaks the truth – and left New York. She traveled throughout New England, where she met and worked with abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass. Her life story, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, written with the help of friend Olive Gilbert, was published in 1850.

While traveling and speaking in states across the country, Sojourner Truth met many women abolitionists and noticed that although women could be part of the leadership in the abolitionist movement, they could neither vote nor hold public office. It was this realization that led Sojourner to become an outspoken supporter of women’s rights.

In 1851, she addressed the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, delivering her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” The applause she received that day has been described as “deafening.” From that time on, she became known as a leading advocate for the rights of women. She became one of the nineteenth century’s most eloquent voices for the cause of anti-slavery and women’s rights.

January 28, 2009

NoLimits.org will "keep you up to date with news about issues on which Hillary took a lead and we know you care so much about," group President Ann Lewis said in an e-mail to as many as 2 million people culled from the Clinton campaign database.

Because No Limits is a registered nonprofit, "it cannot do anything political. It has to be nonpartisan," said Lewis, a longtime senior adviser to Clinton.

In Clinton's job as secretary of state for President Obama, her political dealings are highly restricted.

For example, she shut down her political action committee.

Some, like Democratic consultant and former Bill Clinton aide Chris Lehane, dismiss talk that the group could be a springboard for Clinton to try again for the White House in, say, 2016.

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," Lehane said. "I think this is just [a] group of folks who developed relationships in an intense [electoral] environment and want to stay together."

But the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato countered: "Whenever a group like this says it's not a political organization, you just know it is."

"Maybe [this] is Hillary's answer to Obama's new 'change' group that controls his golden mailing list. Maybe it's a way for Secretary of State Clinton to mobilize backing for her objectives at the State Department," he said. "And maybe [it's] a standby committee of supporters in case Hillary decides to get back into elective politics."

Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said NoLimits.org is "one way to make sure that she - and/or the former President - still have political leverage."

Hillary World-Wide January 26, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton Meets Afghan Women Lawyers. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton met today at the State Department with fourteen prominent Afghan women judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. These jurists were in Washington to participate in a training program arranged by the Department’s Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan. Secretary Clinton told them: "Your American friends greatly admire your bravery and courage. It is your work in the tough environment of Afghanistan for women lawyers that will bring real reform and the rule of law to the Afghan people. As President Obama made clear yesterday in his first foreign policy announcement, we are committed to supporting your efforts to bring security and stability to your country."